Jose Olvera talks to players on the bench during a baseball game. Olvera said when his family first moved to Wisconsin they were one of the only Hispanic families in the area and he was bullied at school. "There'd be racist comments, they always made horrible comments," he said.(Photo: Alexandra Wimley/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

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The Marshfield News-Herald is part of USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and helped the network win two first-place awards, including one for Haley BeMiller, Laura Schulte and Melissa Siegler for “Best Localized National Story” of coverage of the #MeToo movement where Wisconsin women shared their experiences with sexual misconduct. “Hooked in Wisconsin,” a project that explored the state’s heroin addiction epidemic, also earned first-place honors for digital journalism.

Marina Affo, a journalist at the USA TODAY NETWORK's Sheboygan Press, was named “Rookie Reporter of the Year.” Affo, who joined the Press in February 2018, was recognized for her beat reporting on business as well as features on a sexual assault survivor, historic flooding and more. She is a native of Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College who previously held a fellowship with the investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica.

“I am so proud of our amazing team for the depth and breadth of the work recognized by the judges,” said Jim Fitzhenry, vice president of news for USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin. “Marina Affo is truly an outstanding young journalist who brings great energy and purpose to every story.”

Among other USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin honors, all of which featured work from central Wisconsin journalists:

Third-place honors went to Daniel Higgins for a profile of Culver’s founder Craig Culver, and to Haley BeMiller, Karen Madden, Sharon Roznik and Keith Uhlig for extended/ongoing coverage of the heroin crisis.